Utah Grade School Rips Lunches From Students and Tosses Food in Garbage

At an elementary school in Salt Lake City, Utah, a nutritionist had the lunches of all children who owed money for food put in the garbage. This was after the students had already received their trays with meals.

Up to 40 kids at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City picked up their lunches Tuesday, then watched as the meals were taken and thrown away because of outstanding balances on their accounts — a move that shocked and angered parents.

"It was pretty traumatic and humiliating," said Erica Lukes, whose 11-year-old daughter had her cafeteria lunch taken from her as she stood in line Tuesday at Uintah Elementary School, 1571 E. 1300 South.

Now maybe some parents were behind in payments because they are un-employed or under-employed, but what kind of nation is this that literally rips lunches out of the hands of grade school students?

But how thoughtful of the school district to provide some snacks to the young Americans who had just seen their lunch flug into a garbage pail:

The workers then took those lunches from the students and threw them away, he said, because once food is served to one student it can’t be served to another.

Children whose lunches were taken were given milk and fruit instead.

Isn't that sweet?

Apparently, according to a Salt Lake school district spokesperson, the school had tried to contact parents about food fee delinquencies, but were unable to reach them. So the kids had to walk through the cafeteria line and only when their food was rung up on the cash register were their trays taken away.

One can listen to lofty State of the Union addresses that are big on aspiration and short on significant systemic change in the United States, but all you need to know about the moral bankruptcy of our current state of the union is represented by 40 kids in the Uintah Elementary School publically shamed and degraded because of "late payment" for school lunches.

It's an indignity and cruelty that swells to national metaphoric proportions.